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On my 38 six they are shot. To fit the bushings I bought from Kantor the inner sleeve on the spindle where the control arm bolts needs to be replaced. I've put LOTS of force on them but they don't move.. Any suggestions how to do this on the car? Heat? More force? Air chisel? Thanks for any input, Bob

Pictures?

I'd stay away from heat.

Are you talking about the bushing at the top of the wheel support, where the shock bolts through it? (Item B on page 34 of the '38-39 manual)

If so, those are a PITA. I recently did my '40, did my '37 a couple of years ago. In neither case was I able to press them out with my 12 ton press, or hammer/punch. Mine had an inner metal sleeve that the shock bolt fit through, then a rubber bushing, and an outer metal shell that was pressed into the wheel support.

On the '37, I was able to separate the inner metal sleeve from the rubber, then pressed it out, cut the rubber, dug that out, and then hacksawed the outer metal casing out of the wheel support.

The '40 was much worse. I could not separate the inner metal sleeve from the rubber, despite how obviously shot both sides were, and sloppy. I used an electric jigsaw with a carbide blade on those two; they made relatively short work of the cutting. Removal was a chisel/hammer job. I ended up cutting both shells in two places to get them out.

The replacements took about five minutes each to install. (also from Kanter).

Soaking the old bushings in a mixture of brake fluid and acetone for a day or two may help soften old rubber and rust.

Thanks for the replies, you've saved me a ton of work taking the suspension completely apart an then finding that a 12 ton press won't do the work. I will get to work with my saw.

Before taking it all apart or sawing and cussing, I'd try the long bolt/socket/washers trick first, after an overnight soak in penetrant. Yours may not be stuck as tight as Kev's.

Keep track of the "pilots" that go in the shock arm to adjust camber. You don't want to lose them, and they are not all the same, and they need they to go back exactly as they were to keep wheel alignment in the ball park.

True. Somewhere on this site I posted a PDF of the entire disassembly/reassembly of my '37; one thing I did successfully was to use 1/2" sockets either in the press or with bolts or drivers to press out the bronze bushings in the assembly. Worked SLICK.

Pro-tip: Just use brake honing stones on a 3/8" drill to ream out the bronze bushings--a reamer is not really needed. Very little needs to be removed to fit the new shafts and a reamer can be too aggressive, which just introduces more slop into your assembly. I used a reamer on the '37, hones on the '40 and the '40 is FAR better.

I had my saw in hand ready to start sawing but the talk of bronze bushings has me stumped. The rubber on mine were so bad that I had no problems removing the sleeve. I had no luck with the "Big socket, small pipe, big bolt" in the photo trying to press out the steel outer sleeve. The new bushings arrived with a steel inner sleeve. Where is there bronze that needs to be honed? Bob

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I don't think the bronze bushing information applies to the upper outer (rubber/steel) bushing that you are replacing. The steel inner sleeve on the new parts is correct.

You'll probably need some variation on the bolt/socket procedure to install the new bushings.

Once the new bushings are installed and the parts re-assembled, it's a good idea to tighten the bolt that goes through the bushing sleeve with the road wheel in place and the car sitting on the ground.
That way, the rubber bushing will be "neutralized" most of the time.

The bronze bushings are in the kingpin and the lower attachment point of the wheel support. I disassembled the entire front end and did everything while it was apart on the '37, with the exception of the lower inner support arm bushings which were fine.